Baseball Money Lines

Baseball is considered a national past time of the United States and is one of the most popular sports to bet online. If you want to learn how to bet on baseball then you should learn about baseball money line betting odds. There are basically three types of display methods for the betting odds at an online betting sportsbook:

American Odds primarily used in the United States and in Canada

Decimal odds used mainly in Europe, and part of Canada

Considering that baseball is a national pastime of America, we will use American odds for all of our examples.

Let’s say the Philadelphia Phillies are scheduled to play against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Major League Baseball (MLB) – the biggest and the most bet-on baseball league in the world. Our recommended online baseball betting site puts the baseball money line odds at:

Philadelphia Phillies (-200)

Pittsburgh Pirates (+170)

The negative sign (-) beside 200 shows that Philadelphia is the favorite to win the match. What this simply means is that if you bet on the Phillies, then you need to bet $200 to win $100.

The positive sign (+) beside 170 shows that Pittsburgh is the underdog in this game. This way, if you bet on Pittsburgh, then you need to bet $100 to win $170. A tempting choice considering the return, but they are the underdogs for a reason, and will most likely lose the game according to what is on paper and previous results; this is not always the case, but good to consider.

Sometimes it is possible that the odds are even. This does not happen very often but would still be useful to know in baseball money line betting. For example, let’s say two of the strongest teams in the Major League baseball (MLB) – the Boston Red Sox is playing against the New York Yankees. Let’s assume that their recent performance and other factors show that both have the same chance of winning:

Red Sox (+100)

Yankees (-100)*

In this case, if you bet on the Red Sox, you need to bet $100 to win $100; the same thing happens if you bet on the Yankees. Important Note: It is also good to note that some online bookmakers might display the negative symbol while others might not, regardless of the same money line odds being displayed.

Wagering Tips and Strategies

An important baseball money line betting tip is to recognize that pitchers are a key to deciding the money line in baseball. Because of this there are actually several ways to bet on the money line. Let’s use an example above of Philadelphia playing against Pittsburgh. Let’s assume Roy Halladay is pitching for Philadelphia and Chris Jakubauskas is pitching for Pittsburgh.

You can bet on a game based on the pitchers. So, in case Roy Halladay becomes suddenly injured and is replaced by somebody less effective, the lines could be changed in favor of Pittsburgh. If you are counting on the pitchers and this change happens, then your bet will become void.

You can also bet on the game as “action”. An “action” baseball money line bet means that if there is an unscheduled change of the pitchers, the payout could be different than the money line odds posted online. So, if you don’t really think that the pitchers will make a significant impact on the lines, you can bet “active” and your bet won’t be void in an instance of an unscheduled pitcher change.

Another useful baseball money line betting strategy is that you can bet on a game based on a pitcher for just one team. You can bet on Philadelphia based on the fact that Roy Halladay will start, but you do not care about other pitchers for Pittsburgh. This way your bet would only be active if Roy Halladay starts for Philadelphia.

Now that you have a better understanding of baseball money line betting, we recommended you make your bets through our recommended list of online betting sites, shown to have proven top service and security.